Music to Make You Smile, Move Your Body, and Lift Your Spirit!

 

Check Out the Album, THE WORLD OF STEVE HUDSON

featuring the standards

If I Were a Bell, Armando’s Rhumba, Things ain’t What They Used to Be, and the originals Isaac on the Loose, Make Your Path, Love Speaks.

(Steve Hudson-Piano, Hilliard Greene-Bass, Jerome Jennings-Drums)

 

WHAT’S HAPPENING

WHAT’S COOKING IN THE KITCHEN

 

Busy exploring in the practice room the idea of limiting my improvisation to one octave, the octave below middle C which matches with speaking voice. I am then trying to keep myself honest in playing only the notes that I am hearing/singing. It’s to easy to let the hand lead the head, but when I find that happening, I immediately stop and start over….so good, because when I am playing the notes that I am truly hearing, the notes take on a new meaning, as if the phrase is a tree with deep roots.

Practicing a lot of left hand lately by relearning the stride song Carolina Shout by James P. Johnson…Want to get this one in my hands again. Also working on songs using an approach my former teacher Stanley Cowell showed me. You just play the entire song, could be any song, using only your left hand. It makes you use space in a different way, you see the piano differently, and your phrasing just changes…..and then when you play hands together the music goes in a whole new direction!

Want to give a shout out to one of heores who passed on recently, Ahmad Jamal. I first learned about Ahmad Jamal when I read somewhere that MIles Davis was influenced by his approach. In particular, his use of space. His use of space meant that his ideas had an extra weight and importance to them. I had the pleasure of hearing Ahmad play at the Village Vanguard and I noticed how he used different hand signals with his trio to cue in and out of sections. Al I could think of was how he was conducting his trio almost like an orchestra conductor…..somethng that I had seen with another trio. Thank you Ahmad for the beautiful music and sharing your talent with the world! Check out his recording But Not For Me.

Thinking of Wayne Shorter, pioneer of the saxophone, brilliant songwriter and improviser in the world of jazz. Maybe the first song I ever played by Wayne Shorter was Footsteps, and I always admired his playing. But something happened after I started to listen to the Miles Davis Recording, Plugged Nickel. It’s a live recording and the audio could be better, but that recording captured magic, Miles, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. Everyone sounds amazing, but when Wayne Shorter improvises it’s like he’s writing a symphony with every solo. Thank you Wayne for sharing your talent with the world!

A couple days ago I performed on a very old Steinway at a gig in the village and dove into a couple songs that were new to me. Expanding the repertoire to include songs like Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” and playing through the song it really hit me how a simple melody with powerful lyrics can take a song to another level. And then there is the tune, “I Didn’t Know What Time it Was.” Besides having also a great melody and lyrics, what makes this song great? In my mind, it’s all about delayed gratification…meaning the song starts in E minor and then does a bunch of harmonic head fakes until it resolves to G major on the bridge, and then eventually again to G major at the end of the song. There is this feeling that you have to wait for it, and then when it comes, the G major, it’s like the sun breaks through the clouds and you are home.

February 14, 2023

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Just found this video of a performance I just saw that took place at Hermann’s Jazz Club in Victoria, BC with the Redline Trio and Brad Turner and yours truly on a tour of western Canada.

Enjoy!

 

The one plus about the cold weather of is that you end up getting more time on your instrument to practice…..working on some Charlie Parker solos (shedding Moose the Mooche at the moment), Bach (Goldberg Variations….that cross hand stuff is tricky…but worth it!), and writing, writing, writing. Recently, I have the desire to get back to basics….going to relearn James P. Johnson’s Carolina Shout (yeah, one step at a time!).

 

On this Year and Moving Forward

Here is what I learned this year as a person and a musician

  • A deadline is your friend….whether it’s a gig, recording session, a date, a dinner, whatever. In that preparation, some great things happen, decisions are made, more straight lines and less zig zag, and we rise to the occasion.

  • Always leave room for unexpected magic…in the last trio recording I had a piece that I had all arranged. I was convinced that we would go into the studio and in one or two takes, we would be good. Well, it didn't happen that way and the best song on the album we captured when we threw away the arrangement, trusted each other, and just made music (read this same idea in a book by Quincy Jones).

  • Trust yourself and make music that speaks, music that makes you smile, music that makes you dance, music that escapes words and yet says perfectly what you feel, music that brings joy to everyone as we all live this crazy and beautiful journey we call life.

    Hugs to you, S

NOW STREAMING AND EVERYWHERE YOU FIND MUSIC

“Don’t Forget The Dream”

Out today, "Don't Forget the Dream," everywhere you find music and on all streaming platforms!

The song has kind of a soulful, country sound in a way, and I wasn't sure if we would record it...but when Niki sang it in rehearsal, she took it to another place. This is with the project Trace the Sun and features Niki Morrissette and John Michael Parker on vocals, Jordan Peters on guitar, Marcos Varela on bass, Dan Rieser on drums, and yours truly on piano. We recorded at Studio G in Brooklyn with Chris Cubeta and Gary Atturio a couple years back and it's the last track on the 5 song EP that's on BandCamp. Enjoy!! S

 

“Be The One” Now on All Streaming Platforms. This Song is From the Indie Rock Project, Trace The Sun, Enjoy!! You Can Hear More From Trace the Sun on its Site.

 

Appearance on Podcast Jazz-Zeit

Shared my thoughts on the new album, the piano and how I discovered it, and music in general on the podcast, Jazz-Zeit, the German radio show by host Constantin Sieg. The podcast is a deep dive into pianists from the USA, Aaron Diehl, Danilo Perez, Fred Hersch, Lynn Arriale, many others and yours truly….88 keys and everyone’s telling their own story!

 

Video from the Recording Studio, Armando’s Rhumba (Chick Corea)

While making the new album, The World of Steve Hudson, we recorded Armando’s Rhumba by Chick Corea as a duet with yours truly and drummer Jerome Jennings in the recording studio. We had a bit of time towards the end of the recording session and Jerome and I sat down and just played Armando’s Rhumba like we were having a conversation. Here is the video on YouTube. You can hear the song and the rest of the album, The World of Steve Hudson, on BandCamp.

 

NEW VIDEO FROM THE TRIO, ISAAC ON THE LOOSE, CHECK IT OUT!

 

Playing With That Fire, Thinking of Jerry Lee Lewis

So as a kid I took an art class in school at Albany Academy and the teacher was Jim Reed, a tall, skinny guy, with long hair, who kind of looked like Jim Morrisson from the Doors.


Jim Reed who was an amazing photographer, painter, and a phenomenal pianist. All of the walls in his room had painted designs and the ceiling as well. He had an upright piano in his room which had painted designs on the side and there was no cover so you could see the hammer and the strings. A few feet away he a record player.


I never learned much about art in those years, but I did learn to play in that room and later in Mr. Ellington's band class.


When Mr. Reed would play he would play standing up and his hands would be at an angle while his right foot stepped forward. His music had that fire. He taught a group of us, about 8 of us always surrounding the piano, how to play that boogie boogie style of piano playing that came out of New Orleans and was infused in that early rock n roll sound. We played along with Jerry Lee Lewis records as well as Ray Charles, Three Dog Night, Jimi Hendrix, and others. We even used to try and play backwards like Jerry Lee.


Turns out Mr. Reed was friends with Jerry Lee Lewis, and even opened up for him on the road.

He gave me a book about the pianist and encouraged me to keep exploring the music.


I later joined the school band and was lucky to have of the most inspiring teachers I'll ever know, Mr. Ellington, who introduced us to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Yes, and so many others....Ellington always gave us the keys to band room at lunch, and the world opened up. I started getting into other styles of music including jazz.


Sending a big hug to Jerry Lee Lewis, the great rock-n-roll pianist from Louisiana who just recently passed on.

Your music had that fire which sparked so many music lovers out there!

 

Playing Room 623 in Harlem

Had a blast playing with saxophonist Claire Daly and bassist Dave Hofstra at Room 623 in Harlem. Dave plays so in the pocket and Claire’s music just swings hard, both in a relaxed way and more intense way. Whole lotta fun! Thanks for everyone who came out to the show!!